SanDisk makes viewing digital movies easy

Posted on 9 Jan 2008 at 07:19

SanDisk has launched its TakeTV video player in the US, which will make getting video from your PC to your TV simple. The product is a USB flash drive with either 4GB or 8GB of memory that connects to a dock to play stored videos on your regular TV.

"People want a simple, non-threatening way to watch videos on their TV, and this is it" said Mike Langberg, senior public relations manager at SanDisk.

TakeTV is capable of playing MPEG4, DivX and XviD movie files, but it can also play protected content from SanDisk's new FanFare online service. This gives users free access to TV programmes from companies such as NBC and Showtime.

"There's an issue of availability of legal content that we wanted to address," said Langberg.

FanFare is focussed solely on TV, as SanDisk believes that this is the content that people most want to watch. The service is growing in content and currently has full series of popular shows, such as the US version of The Office.

Currently there's no firm launch date in the UK, and it's not clear whether FanFare will make the trip across the Atlantic.

"TakeTV and FanFare are separate product on a similar line at the moment, but they could diverge," said Langberg. "We may launch TakeTV in the UK without FanFare, launch FanFare separately or not at all."

Other content deals are currently being discussed, including free downloads of programmes that will play on any media player, supported by advertising.

Author: David Ludlow in Las Vegas

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